www.mcdoa.org.uk MINEWARFARE AND DIVING NOVEMBER 1995 VOLUME 6 NUMBER 2 Official Use Only MCM1 TACKLE BLUE HARRIER www.mcdoa.org.uk www.mcdoa.org.uk MINEWARFARE AND DIVING THE MAGAZINE OF THE MINEWARFARE AND DIVING COMMUNITY VOLUME 6 NUMBER 2 NOVEMBER 1995 CONTENTS EDITORIAL STAFF Foreword by Cdr P. J. Gale 1 Sponsor: Cdre. R.C. Moore AS1076 - "Arcturus" The First 25000 Hours 2 Publisher: Cdr. P.J. Gale Managing Editor: Lt. Cdr. J.C. Lee Formal opening of Coniston Building HMS Dryad 2 Deputy Editor: Lt. M.L. Kessler Editorial Offices: Defence Diving School Mo(o)re News from Southwell 3 Horsea Island Portsmouth Reminiscences of a Naval (Hard Hat) Diver 4 Hampshire PCDU Commendation 5 P06 4TT Telephone: 01705-224049 Operation Pike 3/95 6 Amphibious Warfare - "The MCM" 9 Life on Fish (Doing Time) 11 Superintendent of Diving - Haul Down Message 13 The Mermaid Factor 14 MINEWARFARE AND DIVING is published Minewarfare Section Telephone Numbers 15 twice-annually by the MW Department of Divers Golf 1995 16 SMOPS on behalf of the Director of Naval Blue Harrier 95 17 Operations. Ministry of Defence. Letters to the Editor 21 Service units requesting copies of the Magazine Obituaries 25 should forward their applications to the Director of CST(MWV) and the Small Ships Naval Operations. CIO The Editorial Offices, Operational Training Staff 27 address as above. Contributions of Minewarfare or On Call Force Group 16 Deployment 28 Diving interest and correspondence are invited and should be addressed to the same location. The Short Career of a Retiring Commodore 31 Recollection 34 This Magazine is issued by the United Kingdom Readers Responses Page 36 Ministry of Defence for Official Use Only. The Challenge and Reply X Inside back cover contents are not to be released to the public and are not to be discussed with the Press or anyone Big Mine Challenge XI Back Cover outside the Military Services without the specific Editorial Back Cover authority of the Directorate of Naval Operations, United Kingdom Ministry of Defence. © Crown Copyright www.mcdoa.org.uk Forewordwww.mcdoa.org.uk by Commander Pat Gale RN Diving training ceased to be a Department of SMOPS on 1 September 1995, when the Defence Diving School formed. The DDS is a joint service school that combines both Royal Navy and Royal Engineers diving training and is commanded in rotation by a Commander RN and a Lieutenant Colonel RE and I am the lucky one to have been selected to be the first Commanding Officer. The school is a direct command FOTR establishment with its own BLB. We are situated at Horsea island in new, purpose built buildings with an outpost in HMS EXCELLENT that includes a new jetty for our diving training boats and replaces the water front we had at Gunwharf. In all it is a superb facility and centre of excellence that must rank among the best there is. Despite being a joint service school, the concept of joint training with interchangeability of instructors and common teaching is not generally viable because of our differing requirements and equipments. Compressed air diving training, however may possibly lend itself to some areas of commonality, and this will be explored and developed. Rationalisations have been made in the support areas such as maintenance, transport, secretarial and administration and course planning. The DDS is an exciting new school with considerable potential and the opportunity for each service to learn from the other, particularly in the field of underwater engineering. Do stop by and visit our new Establishment - I am sure you will be impressed. www.mcdoa.org.uk 1 www.mcdoa.org.uk AS1076 - "Arcturus" The First 25000 Hours By Lt. Cdr A. Blakey RN. Following the section's relocation to HMS DRYAD in March of this year, we found ourselves gathered together on the 15th of June to celebrate another milestone in the honourable history of the Minewarfare section, namely the achievement of 25,000 training hours for the AS 1076 trainer from its "Launch" in 1982. (To counter the scurrilous rumour that the figures were subject to creative accounting in order to get a slap up meal in Southsea with MS and T, and it was not that you thought time lasted twice as long in the trainer, it really did take us that long to turn you into MWOs, MHDs and Operators). Mr Kevin Butcher from the sea systems sales division of Marconi Simulation and Training, is shown presenting the commemorative plaque to CDR Charlie Wilson (CDR MW) before the Marconi and section trainer staff. The celebrations continued into the evening when the trainer staff and their wives were kindly entertained at L'Escargot's' in Southsea. An excellent night out appreciated by all. It was particularly pleasing to receive this award as, when the move to DRYAD was first mooted, most people were of the opinion that the trainer would disintegrate at the first attempt to lift and shift. A fate/malady akin to that found among the more senior brethren at the mention of the words, "Sea Draft". But, Arcturus was of course designed to be mobile and could be dismantled to move from site to site - and so it has proved, though I don't think that the use of several sledgehammers, combined with the upwards exertions of a mobile crane and the lateral exertions of a forklift truck to achieve the dismantling process, was part of the original approved procedure. I could be wrong, but I thought it was the original sections that were As a result of their hard work the trainer staff were able to supposed to be reassembled, but it is churlish to nitpick. recommence the training programme on time. Similarly, any description of the subtle use of the As with all units, nothing stands still and work continues on sledgehammer and metal cuffing equipment required to fit the the trainer to improve the service we provide to our students. trainer onto the specially prepared, scientifically measured and By the end of the year, work to fully integrate Navpac within professionally positioned concrete plinths that will be its home the trainer will be complete as will the upgrade on the mine for the next 25000 hours, would only appear unnecessarily models package to add more realism to the training. Also critical. progressing is the addition of MAS to the trainer and the Joking apart, the team responsible for the relocation to DRYAD possibility of improving the debriefing facility has been are to be congratulated on a most successful move that saw discussed. All projects agree that Arcturus will continue to the trainer decommissioned, disassembled. moved, provide valuable training for another 25000 hours. reassembled and fully operational 5 days ahead of schedule. FORMAL OPENING OF CONISTON BUILDING, HMS DRYAD By CPO (MW)(0) Neil Hodges Commodore R C Moore, Commodore Minor War Vessels, Minewarfare and Diving, officially opened Coniston Building HMS DRYAD, the new site of Minewarfare training, on 18 May 1995. The move ends 72 years of shore-based Torpedo and Minewarfare training at HMS Vernon (more recently HMS Nelson (Gunwarf)), but brings Minewarfare into the mainstream of warfare training at SMOPS. In considering a new name for the Minewarfare school, it was felt that the tradition of naming buildings after old ships would be apt. The name Coniston comes from the first of class of coastal mineweepers, the Ton' class which were designed to meet the threat of the "Modern mine" in the 1950s. Built in March 1953 at J I Thorneycroft, Southampton, HMS Consiton was named after a village in Cumbria and served for 16 years before finally decommissioning in 1970. However, the name will live on in HMS DRYAD as the home of Minewarfare training. Appropriately, members of the Ton Class association were on hand to witness the event and to present Commander Charlie Wilson, the new Commander Minewarfare, with a number of artefacts for permanent display within the building. www.mcdoa.org.uk 2 www.mcdoa.org.uk MO(0)RS NEWS FROM SOUTHWELL By Lt. Cdr Rob Hoole Sorry about the headline but somewhere near this article should be a photograph taken when our own WO(MW)(0) "Pony" MOORE was presented with the clasp to his LS & GC medal by Commodore Richard MOORE (COMMW) during his recent visit to Portland. Moving Out "DRA Southwell" has been renamed "MOD(PE) Southwell" and most DRA personnel have moved to Winfrith, a few miles east of Weymouth. By the time you read this, FOST will have moved to Plymouth, and Portland Naval Base including DRA (North) will have closed. Although the Naval Air Station should stay open until 1998/9, the remnants of the old HMS OSPREY (up the hill in the Naval Base) including the JRs' messes, the chapel and the medical centre are being re-located in the high- rise blocks opposite the Sports Centre. The VERNON Building on the breakwater at Bincleaves, having survived the demise of the Portland Clearance Diving Team by two years, has now been relinquished by the SMOPS Diving School as well. More Changes The future of the Mine Countermeasures, Diving & EOD Group available off-the-shelf, or in need of only minor changes, and (MCMD) is now clearer but I realise that the following thus obviate the need for a Project Definition (PD) phase. explanation will mean more to some than others. The post of Specific equipments are therefore being studied but only to our former boss, the Director General Underwater Weapons determine the best (in terms of performance and cost) (Navy) (DGUW(N)), lapsed in April 95 when the last incumbent generically feasible option to be opted.